Page 1 of Screwing With The Scrooge

CHAPTER1

Xavier

“She’s screwing with me,”I grumble as I slide into the booth across from my best friend, Townes.

“Who? Olive?” He asks easily as he takes a swig of his coffee.

“Who else do you know in this town that would mess with me?” I spit at him and I see him trying to hide his grin. “It’s not funny!” I snap, and he schools his features.

“Of course not,” he says condescendingly, and I wonder why I bother to tell him anything. “What did she do now?”

“Decorated,” I grit out through my clenched teeth.

My dentist is going to be so upset when he sees how much I’ve been grinding them lately.

“The horror,” Townes deadpans. and I glare at him as I pull out my phone and swipe to the picture that I took this morning.

“Decorated like this,” I tell him, showing him the screen.

“With reindeer? Well, it is almost Christmas so… wait,” he says, leaning across the table as I zoom in on two of the plastic reindeer that I found in my front yard this morning. “Is that big one mounting Rudolph?”

“Yep,” I snarl, dropping my phone onto the table.

Townes is visibly shaking with laughter, and I fight the urge to punch him.

“Coffee?” Ruby asks, already filling up a cup before I can respond.

“Thanks. I’ll take the lumberjack breakfast too,” I order, and she shakes her head.

“No can do. I have a gift for you instead.”

I frown as she ducks behind the counter and comes back with a bakery box. I recognize it instantly and my stomach clenches.

“Olive dropped this off for you this morning. Made fresh. She made me promise that I wouldn’t bring you anything else to eat,” she says.

“What do you think your boss will say about that?” I ask Ruby.

“I’m fine with it!” Ford, the owner of the diner, calls as he heads over to the register.

Ruby grins at me as she turns and heads to fill up another customer’s coffee cup. I glare at the box, and Townes sighs.

“Aren’t you going to dig in?” He asks, and I shake my head.

“Nope.”

“Can I then?” He asks. “Their pies are my favorite. I hope it’s their busting cherries one.”

My eyes snap to his and I blink.

“It’s not seriously named that,” I protest, my mouth dropping open, and Townes laughs.

“I’m sure that it’s something like that,” he says, and I know that he’s right.

Olive moved to town four months ago with her sisters, and in that short amount of time, they’ve managed to turn my sleepy, boring town into something that I don’t recognize.I used to have a routine. I used to be almost bored. Now, every day it’s something new.

I’d never tell her or anyone, but I secretly love that.

The Baker sisters came to Wolf Valley and promptly opened up a bakery, a romance book store, and a sex shop all right next door to each other on Main Street. When I first saw the sign for Masterbeaters, I assumed that there was a misspelling or that the font just made it look weird. I had assumed that they meant to call it MasterBakers.

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